The Boy and The Raven
by Reader455
Summary: We are never fully aware of the fact that the live we are living is not set in stone. It can change, sometimes literally overnight. But changes like that are hardly ever welcome...


**Disclaimer: The world and the characters of RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Roosterteeth, likewise any other content I might use belongs to its respective owners **

The day started like any other, he woke up and with great hardships he got out of bed and made his way to the small basin in his room and washed his face. Cold water splattered against his face and the drowsiness quickly left his body. Then he heard it…flapping of wings, he looked out of his window and saw a crow.  
"Shoo! "  
He yelled, the crow simply continued to look at him as if it was trying to _tell_ him something.  
"I said scram! "  
The boy yelled and this time he followed his threat with a dart aimed at crows body. That did it, crow dodged the dart by flying away. Unfortunately it would be back tomorrow, it always came back, this morning charade between the boy and the crow became sort of a ritual.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*  
"Hey, get up already! "Said loud female voice from behind the door startling the young man.  
"You have work to do, so get up and get to it. "  
"I'll be right there. "He answered.  
"You better not be late. Again. "With that, he heard footsteps walking away from his door.  
"Yeah, yeah..."the boy sighted as he walked towards the mirror to make sure he was at least somehow presentable. He saw a young face of a 15 year old boy with a mop of messy black hair with white streak and the left side hiding a pair of green eyes with slitted pupils, an unmistakable sign of his Faunus heritage….as if the fox ears and tail weren't a dead giveaway right away. After a couple of minutes, satisfied with how he looked, he grabbed his jacket and walked out of his trailer.

It was cold outside, sure it was autumn but still, it was unusually cold for this time of year. He made his way around various small shops that were located in their caravan. Trinkets, spices, dust, repair shops, this group of people traveled all over Remnant stopping here and there offering their services to people. They were quite popular in Vacuo, due to its isolation, for local people it was a chance how to get goods from other Kingdoms for a relatively cheap price. But they were not always welcomed like this, in Vale for example they weren't particularly popular. Mostly due to Schnee company going out of their way to prevent them from staying anywhere for a longer period of time. Why? You see, some of the merchants were able to develop their own ways of refining Dust and were offering it for a much cheaper price than Schnee Co. So you can probably understand why the Caravan was not on the best terms with them.

"Hey, over here! "The call for his attention snapped the young man from his musings. He saw a man in his mid-30 waving at him. The man was a member of the Caravans guard and a good friend of his.  
"Hey Zack. Did they finally let you out of the Infirmary? "Asked the boy?  
"Yep, out of the bed and straight into the active service. "Was the man's response.  
"Active duty? With that? "The boy pointed at his chest that was still covered in bandages. „Well, yeah the scouts spotted a large pack of Beowolves that was heading in this direction, so they're calling in everybody who can stand and hold the weapon to service. "  
"How big? "  
"Big enough to get everybody worried. "  
"See, I would tell you to be careful, but it's YOU I'm talking to so I might as well say it to the Beowolves. "  
The boy said with smile knowing the older man's reputation. Yes, Zack was one of the most experienced members of the "Caravaneers" as the men of the guard loved to call themselves. Why? That was beyond him.  
"Hey now, don't be cheeky or I'll tell Marie where she can find those books that seemed to have _just suddenly disappeared_. " The boy visibly paled at the threat.  
"You wouldn't. "  
"Try me, kiddo. "Zack said with a grin. Knowing all too well how much the old woman cared about her books and what she would do to him if she found out that he destroyed them (it was an accident honestly, he just tripped and the books fell into the fire, it could've happened to anybody) the boy decided to end the conversation before the older man could find a way how to use that information against him.  
"Well, it was good to talk to you but I gotta go Annie is gonna kill me if I show up late again  
sooo ... SEE YA! "He shouted back as he took off.  
"Wha- Hey! "Zack shouted after the boy but he was already too far to hear him.

Making up for the lost time, he lost chatting witch Zack the boy hightailed it to the cafeteria where he was working. That's right he was a Cook and a good one at that. As a matter of fact he was hoping to open his own restaurant when he grew older. If he lived that long because right now he was facing something everyone in the Caravan feared, the fury of Annie White. You see Annie was a Chef and his superior in the strict hierarchy of the Caravans kitchen. Not even the General from guard came close to her on the How-scary-you-are-when-you're-angry scale. And that is saying something.  
"You are late!"  
"I know…"  
"Again!"  
"I'm sorry…"  
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't fire you!"  
"Well…you might lose some regulars if you fire me. How about that?" the boy said with a half-serious tone, hoping that Annie would calm down. She didn't. It had a completely opposite effect actually. "What did you say? " Annie yelled at him. "You think you can threaten me and my business? You think you can just–" Her not-so-little tirade would probably continue for a quite while if not for a voice that came out from the cafeteria.  
"Hey, Annie, is your little helper here, yet? I wanna order something to eat."  
The young faunus boy saw a rare sight. The face of defeated Annie White. It wasn't a secret that the boys cooking was the reason why she was getting customers from outside of the Caravan. That and her looks of course.  
"Just…just get in the kitchen. " Annie said with depressed tone in her voice.  
"Yes, ma'am"he saluted and made his way into the kitchen.

Upon entering he immiedatly noticed one thing: an open window. That was something he would never do. Why? Two reasons.  
A) Annie would ride his ass if the left it open.  
B) It would be an invitation for thieves to rob their food storage.  
Speaking of food storage, his ears twitched, he heard something coming from within it. He slowly made his way to the door, grabbing a knife on the way, he reached for the handle, opened the door … and sighted.  
"Again, Sun? "he said with an oblivious irritation in his voice.  
"Thish tohtaly ishn't whath ith hooks hike. "the monkey faunus responded with his mouth full.  
"So your not stealing our food again? "  
Sun swallowed. „O.K. Its totaly what it looks like, but come on, man you guys are the only ones who have fresh fruit from Vale. What was I supposed to do?"  
"Well, I know it sounds crazy, but you coud always buy some. How about that?"  
Sun just looked at him with his are-you-serious look.  
"Buy? With what?"  
"With money. "  
"What is this _mo-ney_ you speak of?"  
The boy groaned. „Or, you know you could always ask me to give you some food. That way I'll know what is missing and I'll be able to tell Annie that I was just trying some new dish and that it didn't work out, so I had to throw it out."  
You'd do that?" Sun asked, honesty suprised at his generosity.  
"I mean, yeah, I'm not gonna let my friend/moocher starve. "  
"Wait, you consider me a friend? The guy who steals your food and who almost costed you your job?"  
"Well you're one of few people I can normally talk to, so yes, I consider you a friend. Kind of. Sort of. I just hope you won't make me regret it. The boy said before Sun started to hug/choke him.  
"You're the best man, thanks a lot. "  
"Regret…regret….REGRET!"

Later that evening they were both sitting under a tree eating food the boy _wasted_ during his work day. They were talking about various things but mainly about Suns miss-adventures around Vacuo.  
"O.K now I know you're making this up."  
"Nope. I swear I'm not yanking your tail"  
"There's no way the guards woudn't notice if you were sneaking _directly above their heads"_  
"I'm telling you man if you want to sneak by someone go above them. They won't look up. _Noone ever looks up_."  
"Sneaking 101 by Sun Wukong" the boy remarked sarcasticly.  
"Hey, one day that book will hit the shelves and it will be a best-seller. And you my dear friend will have the honor of bragging that you knew the author before he was famous" Sun said with faked pride and overconfidence.  
"You don't read."  
"So?"  
The boy just shook his head at his friends response.  
"Anyway joking aside for now, I have something I wanted to talk with about." Sun said with unusually serious tone in his voice.  
"Hmm?" The boy looked at him with curiosity.  
"I am planning to leave Vacuoo."  
"What? Why?"  
"To find something I wanna do in my life, you know? I mean there has to be something better than this." Sun said as he looked over Vacuos landscape. "Something better than just surviving from one day to another. Something more fulfilling."  
"Like what?"  
"I wanna try to go to Mistral, and to apply for Haven Academy."  
"Haven? You wanna be a hunter?"  
"Well… I dunno about the hunter business, but it seems like a good place to start looking. Plus it's always a good idea to improve your combat skills. You might wanna remember that."  
"Why would I need to learn how to fight? I'm a cook not a fighter. " He asked Sun with confused look. He knew fighting 101 from Zack, he knew that you use the pointy end of the sword to hurt your enemies but that was about it. He never needed to know more.

"Well, it's your choice but remember there may come time when you'll need to use those fancy knife skills outside the kitchen." Sun said as he was getting up. "It's getting late I better get going. Long day tommorow, for the both of us I'm sure" He flashed a grin at the boy. "See ya!"

Little did the two know, it would be a while before they saw each other again.

On his way home he was thinking about what Sun told him.  
"Something better, huh…" he said to himself as he plopped down on his bed "Something I want to do with my life." He muttered before sleep took him.

"_What is this? A dream? Where am I?" He was standing on a battlefield or at least on something that used to be one. Now it was just a vast wasteland with countless weapons stuck in the ground. It was a place where once vicious battle took place. Where great armies clashed in a massive battle. Now it was silent, bathed in the pale light of the shattered moon which was giving it otherworldly look. Whatever it used to be doesn't matter, now it was a graveyard.  
"Hello__!__" he shouted "Can anyone hear me?"_

_Nothing_

_He slowly started walking trying to find something or someone. He didn't know for how long he has been working could've been minutes could've been days. _

_Suddenly he heard something:  
"…a…e…..u…"_

"_What? Who said that?" He was looking around feverishly until he had finally noticed something. A figure on a cliff. Which was odd, since he was sure there was no cliff there a minute ago._

_He heard it again, this time a bit more clearly:  
"Wa…e…up…"_

_Slowly, he made his way towards the mysterious figure. As he approached the figure he noticed that it was holding something. He wasn't sure what it was at this distance, but it looked like a bow.  
Finally, he was standing next to the person he still couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman due to the hooded coat he or she was wearing._

"_U-umm excuse me…" he started, his voice trembling. "Do you know what this place is?"_

_Nothing…_

"_Can…Can you hear me? Hello?" He reached out and touched the hooded persons shoulder._

_Finally the hooded being reacted. Slowly it turned around and faced the young boy. The hood was completely covering its face but he knew that it was examining him, perhaps measuring his skills, not that he had any besides cooking. They were standing there, looking at each other, for a couple of minutes before he heard that voice again, this time clearly:_

"_Wake up__!__" This time however it sounded urgently. As if whoever was calling him was running out of time._

_Hooded person slowly raised its arm that was holding the bow._

"_You want me to have it?" he asked. _

_No response._

_The boy carefully reached out and grabbed the bow. The moment he touched it an unearthly roar could be heard through the graveyard._

_*RROOOOOAAAAAARRRR*_

_He turned around in panic and froze in fear. There was a knight. Knight wearing black armor and holding a massive great sword. From his armor was raising a black mist like a smoke._

_*RROOOOOAAAAARRRR*_

_No doubt, the roar belonged to him. He pointed his sword at the boy and started charging at him. The boy turned to the hooded figure for help, only to find out that it was gone. It left him alone with a madman in a black armor attacking him. _

_The knight swung his blade at him and for a brief flash he saw it. His death. His body split in half…_

'_NOOO' His mind screamed and his body moved. On instinct, he moved just enough to dodge the fatal blow. He started running, as long as he won't let that monster near him it can't hurt him that's what his basic instincts were telling him. Yes, he was faster, the knights armor may protect him well but it should also slow him down and exhaust him more quickly. He also had a bow, a long range weapon, perhaps he could try to shoot the mad knight. _

'_Yeah, right' he thought to himself 'I have never used a bow before. Besides, I have no arrows. Unless…' In his mind a plan was slowly starting to take shape. Insanely crazy, but a plan nonetheless._

_The mad knight was slow, that gave him a little time to practice. He tested a couple of swords before he found one that would work. Then he hid himself behind a rock and waited for the knight to appear. Finally he heard the clanking of metal, which was indicating that his enemy was near. _

'_What the hell am I doing, he's gonna kill me, is any of this real, I don't want to die…' those were only some of his thoughts that were running through his head. The knight was near, even if he couldn't hear him, his survival instincts were running wild, telling him to run, to hide, to beg for his life… to do anything else other than the thing he was about to do. _

_He got out of his hiding spot, and slowly started walking towards the knight. He didn't notice him, yet. He prepared his bow and the makeshift sword-arrows. He took aim and then did the stupidest thing in his life.  
"Hey, you__!__" he called out to the knight. "Who or what are you? He asked but the only answer he got was another inhuman roar. The boy steeled his nerves as the berserker started to charge him. He fired the first shot. Miss.  
"Damn." He cursed, he took his second arrow and took aim again. About 20 seconds before the berserker reaches him. Second shot. This time the arrow clanked of the helmet.  
"Almost." The boy said as he loaded his final shot. 10 seconds before that giant blade cuts him in half.  
"Aim." he ordered himself, but even before he fired, he knew, something inside him was telling him 'this one will hit' "Fire" and he let the final shot loose. The blade flew through the air and passed through the opening in berserkers' helmet impaling him through his eye. The knight fell to the ground._

_It was dead. That monstrosity was gone. He couldn't believe it, he won. The boy collapsed on the ground and started laughing in euphoria he was feeling from his victory.  
"Yes, YES, YESS__!__" he yelled as he rolled around savoring his triumph "Hahahahaha" he laughed like a madman. "That's what you get for messing with Ne- *urk*" he choked when armored arm squeezed his throat. He wasn't dead…. But how? He could see the sword poking from the back of his helmet dripping with blood. The grip around his throat was tightening, his vision was darkening, he was dying. Last thing he saw was the knights' helmet, and his eye filled with an unimaginable amount of hate._

He woke up.  
*pant* *pant* *pant* his breathing was ragged, his body sweaty and trembling from the dream that felt all too **real**. He could still feel the dark knights iron grip around his throat.  
'What was that?' he thought 'It was a dream right? Yeah, just a dream, it wasn't real, it couldn't have been real.' He kept trying to convince himself with those words. But it wasn't working, that knight and the look he gave him, he wouldn't be forgetting it anytime soon.

"Finally…" the boy suddenly heard. It was the voice from the dream, the one that was urging him to wake up.  
"Who said that?" the boy asked.  
"That is not important…" the voice responded "You need to get out of here…"  
"Why?"  
"Look out of the window…"  
Making his way to the window, the boy suspiciously looked around his room making sure that Sun or any of his other friends were trying to pull something on him. He noticed the light coming through the curtains had an unusual orange glow. Was the sun setting? Did he slept through the whole day? As he spread the curtains his body froze and his eyes widened…

Fire…..

The Caravan was on fire. The flames were still pretty far away from his trailer but they were closing in on him devouring everything in their path along the way. It was only now that his ears registered the screams of panic, and the efforts of those who were trying to get the flames under control.  
"Fire?" the boy gasped. "How? What happened? An accident?" The voice didn't answered any of his questions, only insisted on leaving. "Leave? You can't be serious…. I- I-Those are my friends, I have to help them." With that he ran out of his room.

"ZACK!" he screamed "Zack…..Annie….Serah. Can anyone hear me?"  
"Here…please…help…" weak and desperate pleas for help caught his attention. The boy turned around to see a hand reaching out to him. He ran towards it to see an older woman trapped underneath some rubble, probably from when one of the trailers exploded.

"I'm here. Don't worry." He said to the woman as he started to move some of the rubble so that he could free her. He knew the woman, not by a name, but he saw her from time to time on his way to work.  
"The soldiers…" she groaned "Th-they're behind-"  
*bang*  
A gunshot silenced her forever before she could finish her sentence. The boy turned around and saw at least half-a-dozen soldiers. They were all wearing white robes that covered their torsos along with a portion of their arms, on the parts that weren't covered by robes he could see something that looked like a black plates of armor. Their faces were completely covered by masks with black holes there their eyes should be. Each of them carried a sword. In front of them was a man who killed the older woman. It was clear that he was the one calling the shots here. He was wearing a similar outfit only their colors were reversed, and his mask was made of metal and had the shape of some distorted face. He was holding a rifle. All seven pairs of black voids the men had instead of eyes were now focused on one thing. The boy.

The man in black robes pointed at the boy and three of the men behind him started to walk towards him.  
He tried to move but he couldn't, the stares froze him in place, those empty voids were terrifying. He felt as two of the three men lifted him off the ground and carried him towards the man in black. They dropped him on the ground in front of him, two men in white stood on either side of him and the third man stood behind him.  
The man in black raised his hand and put it on top of boys head.  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHG" the boy screamed and as he felt an enormous pressure in his head. His memories were randomly surfacing before fading away. Was the man reading his mind? He never looked at any of his memories for longer than a second until he found the dream he had not too long ago. He was examining it carefully, over and over again, as if he was trying to find something. Eventually, he let the boy go and signaled the two men to lift him back up again. He then reached into his robes and pulled of a deadly looking knife. The boy felt how the third man that stood behind him grabbed his hair and pulled back giving the man in black easy access to the boys' throat.

"Run…."  
There was that voice again, telling him to run. He would if he could.

*SKREEEEEEAAAAAACHHHH*

Out of nowhere came a loud screech that caused the masked men to cover their ears and let go of the boy.  
"Run…To the left…"  
This time he listened, he ran past the masked men and turned left. Right into a dead end. The trailers were parked in a way that created something like a streets, for orientation purposes each trailer had a specific place where they parked when the Caravan decided to stay in one place for a longer period of time, 'streets' also made it easier to get around, but sometimes they didn't lead anywhere. Like the one he just ran into. There was only a big pile of garbage.

"Hide…"said the voice  
"What?"  
"Trust me…"

Reluctantly the boy dove into the garbage trying his best to deal with the awful smell.  
Didn't take long for the masked men to appear, they checked the area before one of them started to walk towards the big pile of garbage. All of the sudden multiple howls could be heard from the distance. The boy knew what howled like that.  
'Beowolves' he thought 'It must be that huge pack Zack told me about, the fire must've attracted them. He was right, soon the Grimm were crawling all over the place, looking for something to eat. The masked men tried to fight them off first, but were soon forced to retreat due to massive numbers of the beasts. Luckily, the smell boys' hiding-spot was giving concealed his scent and kept him safe from the beasts.

When the morning came, he carefully got out of his hiding spot. Thankfully most of the Grimm seemed to have left. He made his way through the camp, making sure the Beowolves, or the masked men weren't around. Finally, he arrived at his trailer, somehow it didn't burn down completely. He entered and looked around: his things were on the ground, clearly somebody had gone through them looking for something. What? He didn't know. He walked towards his bed, kneeled down and reached underneath it. He was looking for the loose floorboard beneath which he had his secret hideout. He found it and pulled out a small box, inside of it was a black notebook. Relived that it was intact he decided to change his clothes, the smell of garbage was starting to make him sick. While he gathered some fresh clothes he thought about what to do next…looking for other survivors, if there are any, seemed like good choice. He put on his favorite dark blue semi-trench coat and he set out.

He headed for the armory, which seemed like a logical choice to hole up, on his way however he noticed that something was odd: there were no bodies, even the body of the old woman the man in black shot right in front of him was gone. It didn't seemed like the Grimm ate the bodies either: there was no _mess_. The boys' anxiety was growing more and more as he approached the armory.

Nothing.

The armory was completely void of both life and equipment. Wait no, there was something on the floor: A set of combat knives. Combat knives were the weapon of choice of many members of the Scouting Unit. He decided to take them, not that he knew how to use them effectively but it was better than being unarmed. He remembered what Sun told him how improving your combat skills. He needed to learn how to fight. If he knew how to fight, then maybe he could find those masked men and make them tell him what they want with him and what they did with his Zack and others. He sighted.

"We need to talk." That voice was back again.  
"Wha- You again? Who the hell are you?"  
"You need t-"  
"No!" he shouted "I'm not gonna do anything until you show yourself to me…. I- I'm done following orders given to me by a voice. Come out!"  
The voice was quiet for a while. "Very well…"  
He then heard that all too familiar noise: flapping of black wings….  
"Is….this supposed to be some sort of a joke?" the boy asked while looking around for somebody else.  
"This is no joke I assure you…" the crow responded  
"But you're crow…"  
"Yes, I am…"  
"But then how come you can talk?"  
"As you might now realize, I am no ordinary crow…..You might refer to me as Raven…

"Raven? But aren't you a crow…?" the young boy said confused  
"That is not the issue here" Raven said, sounding very irritated. Seemed like he had to deal with that question very often. "Tell me how much you know about _the Great Archives, _young man?  
"About what?" the boy asked again getting more and more confused as this conversation went on.  
"I see…" said Raven "Seems like I have quite a lot of explaining to do, but first things first: What is your name boy?"

"Nero, Nero Howlett..." answered the boy.

**Fin**

**Hey guys, this is something I wanted to do for a while: Write my own original story in the world of RWBY. I welcome criticism as long as it's constructive and helps me improve as a writer. But this IS my first time publishing a story so please be nice.**

**Anyway a couple of things:**

**This chapter is meant to be like the RWBY trailers just sort of introducing the character so if you like it leave a nice review and I'll write more**

**I have 2 ways this story can go:  
A – its gonna follow my own story for and explain in detail about who my OC focus on his growth as a person  
B – Its gonna timeskip to where he meets the cast of RWBY and most of things are gonna be explained through flashbacks and such  
**

***For the record this chapters events take place 4 years before RWBY starts **

**So yeah let me know in reviews or message me if you have a preference on how you want learn about my OC, **_**IF**_** you want to learn about him at all….**


End file.
